I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord, put me not to shame (Psa 119.31).
The Christian life begins with a principled decision to believe and obey God’s Word, as the psalmist himself confessed in the previous verse, “I have chosen the way of truth: / Thy judgments have I laid before me” (119.30). Oh, magnify the grace that first changed your heart to make this holy choice, my brethren! Many still walk as enemies of Christ (Phil 3.18) and you are no more inherently worthy of God’s favor than they.
Yet many who seem to have made that initial decision do not persevere in faith to the end. Few who begin well finish well, as the parable of the soils (Luke 8.4-15) suggests, particularly in the cases of the rocky soil (a joyful convert turning away through persecution) and thorny soil (a more settled convert being gradually lured away by worldliness).
Only the good ground hearers, those with an honest and good heart, keep the Word they hear and bring forth spiritual fruit with “patience” (endurance, perseverance; Luke 8.15). One loose paraphrase says they “seize the Word and hold on no matter what, sticking with it until there’s a harvest.”1
The psalmist was such a hearer of God’s Word. Having stuck to it, he still exhibits by his humble prayer a holy distrust in himself with a steadfast hope in God. The psalmist’s past spiritual loyalty and his continuing prayer for future grace are characteristics of those, sincere in faith, who shall experience God’s preserving grace to the very end.
True saints, loyal to God, still beg His help to persevere.
TESTIMONY OF THE PAST
“I have stuck unto Thy testimonies.” Even today, almost 400 years after the Authorized Version was translated, this remains a common and great English idiom, one which renders the Hebrew text very precisely. The verb means “cling to, i.e., to fasten oneself to an object,”2 and can be used quite literally (e.g., 2 Sam 23.10). “Ruth clave unto” (same verb) her mother-in-law Naomi, whereas Orpah kissed her goodbye (Ruth 1.14). By sticking with Naomi, Ruth showed much affection and loyalty toward her mother-in-law. It was not easy for Ruth to do this under the circumstances. She was choosing to forsake her homeland, her traditional idolatry, and her natural family, and to cling instead to Naomi’s land and God and people. Moreover, she swore on her life to affirm her resolution (Ruth 1.15-18). The ensuing story illustrates her sincerity; Ruth followed Naomi, lived with her, cared for her, followed her counsel, and even restored her joy by marrying Boaz and bearing a grandson! She stuck with her through thick and through thin.
This is the psalmist’s loyalty to God’s testimonies, and the loyalty of every real Christian to the Scriptures.
Sticking to God’s Word does not require sinless perfection, for the psalmist was painfully aware of his past failures (119.59), and the stubborn remnants of depravity (119.5-7). However, there was a huge difference between his experience and the experience of unbelievers. His love for the God of Scripture was a sincere love based on truth, and his obedience sprang from that love. Faith and obedience were the direction of his life; each sin was an exception to the rule. Even though King David had a few glaring moral blemishes, after he died, God’s assessment of him was full of grace (n.b. 1 Kgs 9.4; 14.8; 15.5)!
Some spiritually-sensitive souls fail in self-examination to apply the judgment of charity and suffer needlessly. They unwarrantably lose much of their assurance by dwelling too much on their sins while ignoring completely the evidences of their regeneration. Frankly, this comes very close to horrid self-confidence and disparaging the grace of God. Since you do not expect to be accepted in yourself but in the Beloved (Eph 1.6, in Christ, the righteous One), why would the presence of remaining sin take away all assurance? Likewise, how can you account for the genuine love for God you have exercised, even if it is pitifully small and inconsistent, along with living faith in His Word and heartfelt repentance from sin, except on the grounds that He has begun a good work in you? You would not take any credit for these infant graces, would you?
If you really must confess in all honesty that you are enslaved to sin and totally devoid of love to God, then of course you are still lost, but few people who are really anxious about their state before God can so testify. If they would judge themselves charitably, they would be constrained to say with the psalmist, “I have stuck unto Thy testimonies.” This is not boasting. It is just humbly acknowledging that God has been at work in your heart and life.
PRAYER FOR THE FUTURE
“O Lord, put me not to shame.” Even while proclaiming his past loyalty, the psalmist remains humbly dependent upon God’s future grace. He calls upon this great and unique name, Yahweh—the uncreated, almighty, self-existent One who keeps covenant with His chosen people. The petition is an implicit confession that it is not in the man to keep himself apart from God’s grace. To quote the judicious Canons of Dort (Fifth Head, Article 8):
Thus it is not in consequence of their own merits or strength, but of God’s free mercy, that they neither totally fall from faith and grace nor continue and perish finally in their backslidings; which, with respect to themselves is not only possible, but would undoubtedly happen; but with respect to God, it is utterly impossible, since His counsel cannot be changed nor His promise fail; neither can the call according to His purpose be revoked, nor the merit, intercession, and preservation of Christ be rendered ineffectual, nor the sealing of the Holy Spirit be frustrated or obliterated.
“Put me not to shame” refers to a future catastrophe he wanted to avoid at all costs. Manton taught that this shame could stem:
1. from his own sin (“Oh suffer me not to fall into any such sinful course as may expose me to shame, and make me become a reproach to religion”) or,
2. from suffering (i.e., “the disappointment of his hopes. Hope deferred leaves a man ashamed [Rom 5.5]. . . . When a man has given out to others that he has such defenses, hopes, expectations, and these fail, then he is ashamed”).3
The former seems more likely the intended sense in this context. Do you, from a lack of self-confidence, feel your spiritual precariousness? Are you genuinely afraid that you will fall from grace if left to yourself? Good! This is your recourse. Pray that the Lord who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil 1.6). Pray with the psalmist, “O Lord, put me not to shame.” Describing a true believer, Henry Law said,
With clinging hands the testimonies will be grasped. The disgrace of straying will be dreaded. Prayer will be made for deliverance from such shame.4
And Charles Bridges closed his choice remarks most encouragingly:
Dependence upon the Lord, in a deep sense of our weakness, is the principle of perseverance. Never will he shut out the prayer of his faithful servant. He hath promised—“My people shall never be ashamed” (Joel 2.27); and therefore, taking firm hold of his promise, you may “go on your way rejoicing.”5
The Lord grant that we may honestly make this good confession, and hopefully present the same petition. “I have stuck unto Thy testimonies: O Lord, put me not to shame.” Amen.
Notes:
1. The citation is worthy but we cannot recommend the whole work.
2. DBL #1815.
3. Manton’s Works, VI.321-324.
4. Law, Daily Prayer and Praise, in loc.
5. Bridges, Exposition of Psalm 119, in loc.
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